Review of K5 Learning

So my 6 weeks are over and it is time to tell you what I think of K5 Learning. I have three children who in the Kindergarden to 5th grade range. The first thing I did after setting up my profile was have each of them do the assessment. 

My 4 year old, who would be starting Kindergarden in the Fall if we were sending her to public school, tried to do the math assessment and got bogged down on it and didn't finish. I personally don't worry about formal math with my kids until they can read pretty fluently. I didn't ever have her finish the assessment which means she was never able to do the Kindergarden math lessons.  

My 8 year old boy took the assessments for math and reading and pretty much was at the 3rd grade level which is where he currently is, so that was reassuring.  Good to know he is right on track. 

My 10 year old took the assessments and the results showed that he was already beyond 5th grade in math and right on target for 4th grade in Reading. He could have done the lessons to reinforce the math and reading skills but he wasn't overly interested in doing these lessons. He is focused on other things like building lego robots. When he has computer time he doesn't want to do lessons. He wants to program. Other than the assessments he didn't use this K5 program. 

 So even though I have three kids that were in the age range of this online program I really only had two that used it much at all.

My daughter used it the most and would often ask to play K5.  She liked the reading games and while I thought they were rather repetitive and slow she seemed to be just fine with them.  There were many times the lesson got boring or perhaps she didn't understand what she was supposed to do or maybe it was too hard and she just gave up and turned it off.

My 8 year old boy would play K5 usually after sitting and watching his sister play for a bit. He didn't ask to do it and would get bored pretty quickly once he started but he likes to work on the computer when he gets the chance and this gave him an option that I was alright with. I think the program moved too slowly for him. The explainations were too long and the people talked too slow. Perhaps that is a California issue. Don't we all talk to fast here! He just thought everything took too long. He is used to programs that respond quicker I guess.

The 10 year old would sometimes sit in on the lessons but usually he would make comments about how easy it would be to make this program and then he would go on and on about how he would do it.  He was more interested in how the lessons functioned rather than the content. This is just the type of kid he is. He is always trying to figure out how something works.

The other day my daughter asked if she could play K5 and I told her our free trial period was over she was sad that she didn't have this program to turn to when she was bored. That is usually when she would ask me if she could do K5. She wanted to play on the computer and she knew if it was a "learning game" I was more likely to let her do it.

While it was nice to have a program like this to turn to when my kids wanted computer time I am not willing to pay $25 a month or $200 a year for it. I guess if I thought of it as their school work and used K5 as their reading and math curriculum then it might be attractive but since it was something we used as a supplement and a once in awhile "game" it isn't something I feel the need to invest in at this time.